Rubber Bandits parts 3 4 & 5

Author: rubbermorph
Title: Rubber Bandits (parts 3, 4 & 5 of 5)
Date: 31 December 2005

3.

“You enjoyed that.”

Ben stared up at the intruder, who had his back to him. He’d long since given up trying to respond to the comments, because he had no way of responding, so he just lay still and listened.

“You enjoyed that, and what I did to you just then was pretty nasty, so I want you to understand what a nasty little fuck you are,” said the intruder. He turned around and stared back at Ben. He seemed to want to say something else, but instead he walked across to the desk with Ben’s computer on it, and Ben realised that, again, the intruder had stopped making a noise when he moved. He couldn’t figure this out at all. The intruder reached forward and nudged the computer mouse, and Ben’s dormant PC sprung back to life, the inactive windows reappearing on the screen. Carefully, the intruder moved the mouse over each window and clicked ‘refresh’ and, to Ben’s surprise, the internet connection seemed to be working again, for the sites he’d been getting horny over a couple of hours earlier were back on the screen: GearFetish, Rubberzone, Recon. Ben wondered what the intruder would make of it all.

The intruder looked back at Ben. The skullcap over his forehead moved slightly as he frowned and narrowed his eyes. He clicked on the ‘My Profile’ link on the GF site and Ben saw his own profile appear – images of himself in his own and borrowed rubber from the previous couple of years he’d enjoyed it in London and a lengthy list of likes, interests and experiences. He scanned through the details, as if processing the information, and then opened up the gallery and enlarged a few of the photos. Ben felt embarrassed; even without the rubber on, he still didn’t look as fit as he had when the best photos were taken, and his hair felt too long and messy. Some of the photos had him wearing hoods and gasmasks, and the intruder merely glanced at these before moving on, but where Ben’s face was clearly visible he’d examine the pictures more closely before turning and studying Ben for a few seconds, still frowning. He turned back to the screen and read some more. Ben glanced across at the alarm clock, which now showed the time as 3:12am. The intruder turned to Ben again, his frown gone. He was definitely smiling this time. Ben hadn’t forgotten what he’d just done to him, but he still liked his smile.

“Now, you’ve turned out to be very interesting,” said the intruder. “I think I’d like to talk to you now, but I’m going to need a promise from you that you’re not going to start shouting or anything stupid like that, because I could do something much worse to you than you’ve seen so far. I’m going to assume you’re going to be smart and stay quiet because, if you do, I could help you. Do you understand me-,” he glanced back at the profiles on the screen, “- Rubbersuperhero?”

Ben nodded. His dick swelled from hearing someone address him by his profile name, as though it were his real name. He also thought how stupid it sounded now, though. The intruder gave a small nod in reply, slipped the weapon from the harness across his chest again, and pointed it at Ben’s mouth. For the first time Ben could concentrate on it clearly. It looked like a shotgun with a single barrel about nine inches long, made from some kind of black metal. The intruder held the handle at the far end. There seemed to be grooves cut into the gun that fitted his hands perfectly, and when he placed his left hand under the barrel to steady it, it almost seemed to be part of him. Ben noticed that he was aiming it more carefully than he had when he’d first incapacitated him, but assumed he was pretty expert with this thing. The intruder gently moved the index finger of his left hand along the bottom of the barrel, and squeezed the trigger with his right index finger. Ben was aware of a ripple in the air and suddenly his tongue felt normal and seemed to shrivel up, back to its regular size. He flexed his jaw and tried to say something, but then he remembered the bulge in his throat. The intruder lowered the gun a couple of inches and squeezed again. Ben’s suddenly felt a lump in his throat and started to cough. He cleared his throat and looked across at the intruder, who placed the gun on Ben’s desk by the keyboard, and smiled back at him.

“It’s, uh, Ben,” said Ben. “That’s my name, I mean… not that.” He nodded towards the screen.

“No kidding!” said the intruder, still smirking. “Well, I’m pleased to meet you Ben, and I had a great time inside your ass earlier, buddy. Probably wasn’t what you expected, but it’s a lot more fun for me if you’re not expecting it. You got anything to ask me then, Benjy?”

Ben could think of a few things, but he didn’t know where to start. “What’s your name?” he asked, thinking as he did so how completely unimportant this information seemed right now, and wondering why he’d asked it. He hoped he didn’t get a limited number of questions.

“Well, I wouldn’t normally give my name out to the boys I meet like this,” said the intruder, “but I’m taking a bit of a chance with you, Benjy.” Ben wasn’t keen on Benjy, but his dick didn’t seem to mind right now. “I’m Hudson, and I’m the most interesting guy you’ve ever met. Seriously.”

“Can I have my arms and legs back now?” asked Ben. A wave of panic hit him. “I will be able to move them again, won’t I?”

Hudson leaned forward and ruffled his hair. “Yes, you’ll probably be able to move them again very soon, Benjy. Don’t you worry about that, kid. It’s just better for me if you’re immobile right now. Besides-,” he reached across and tweaked Ben’s cock again, causing it to throb, “-don’t you kind of like being helpless?”

“I’d like to be able to move, all the same,” muttered Ben.

Hudson gripped his cock tighter. “That’s cute, but you don’t need to be able to move to listen to me, ok? So just do what I say for a bit, alright?” He released Ben's cock and hooked his thumbs under the back of his rubber skullcap, peeling it off the top of his head. He rubbed his eyes and turned back to Ben, who was pretty sure he'd been close when he'd aged him at mid-thirties. He looked handsome and rough at the same time. A man who could take care of himself. This man is horny as fuck, Ben thought to himself. He decided not to push the issue of his mobility any further just yet.

He nodded across at the weapon on the desk. “What is it?”

Hudson followed Ben’s gaze. “That, well, that takes some explaining,” he said. “Not the most explaining, but a fair bit. That’s the Rubbergun, basically.” Ben frowned, and Hudson seemed to want to explain himself. “I’ve got a few of these toys, it makes my life a lot easier if I just name them after what they do, no matter how corny it sounds.”

“The Rubbergun,” repeated Ben. “What does it do?”

“Well, as you probably noticed earlier, it pulled a neat little trick on your voicebox earlier,” said Hudson, “and your tongue. Basically, Benjy, I’m a scientist, and all the evidence points to me being pretty much one of the smartest scientists in the world. Certainly one of the free-thinkers. But don’t worry about that too much right now. I’m not using my inventions and discoveries for the good of mankind, I’m using them for personal gain and to have as much fun as possible. Tonight, that included turning your tongue and voicebox into superlatex and inflating them. And you might have noticed there’s a couple of superlatex balls doing something interesting to your joints at the moment. Makes you more vulnerable, see. Which helps me out.”

“What’s superlatex?” asked Ben. This wasn’t making much sense to him yet.

“Superlatex,” said Hudson. “Ok, I’m a big fan of rubber, always have been, just like you seem to be.” He looked across at Ben, who suddenly realised he was nodding in agreement. Hudson smiled at this. “Rubber’s great, but latex has its faults: it tears, it gets damaged easily, it doesn’t always fit as snug as you want, and so on. Also, it doesn’t breathe easily, which a lot of guys enjoy, as do I, but if you want to be running around in the gear all night, you can run into some of these problems. Superlatex is different. Totally airtight, but it doesn’t suffocate the skin. You can adjust the settings on the Rubbergun to make it as dense – or otherwise – as you like.” He lifted the Rubbergun, and Ben saw there were different switches and settings on the handle and along the bottom of the barrel. “Well, I can do that, you’ve not got a Rubbergun, of course,” murmured Hudson. “Yet,” he added.

Ben was confused. “You get rubber out of that thing?”

Hudson nodded patiently. “It all comes down to atoms, really, Benjy. Everything’s made of atoms, molecules, whatever. The science isn’t that important right now. Which is just as well. I can set up this gun to make rubber appear in mid-air. I can set it up to make rubber appear behind something; metal, wood, brick, skin. I can change the settings again and whatever I point it at ends up being turned into rubber. Completely. I can create flat rubber, sheets of rubber, and that’s ok, but it’s far more useful for me to create a rubber balloon. A big, unburstable cushion of air. Like the one you had in your mouth instead of a tongue. That was black superlatex, by the way, although you couldn’t see it. And like the one you had in your throat. That’s what you’ve got in your joints at the moment. Your nerves still work, so you can still feel stuff, but there’s a big pocket of air between the bones and you can’t get them to work together, so movement’s limited. Obviously you’ll understand why I wanted you like that.” He reached down and squeezed his rubber codpiece slightly. “I’ve pulled that trick before. A few times. On a few boys like you. Always good for me. Only I think you’re the first one who enjoyed it back, which is why I’m telling you all this now.”

“You saw my profiles,” said Ben, “but none of them say anything about getting off on rape.”

“You did get off on it, though,” said Hudson. It wasn’t a question, Ben realised. It was just a statement of fact. He wondered if he should challenge him further, but suddenly it all seemed very petty and childish. There were other questions he wanted answering.

“You don’t make any noise when you walk around the room,” he said, “but when you leant on the bed, and on me, you obviously weighed something. I mean, you’re big, you’re solid. How do you move silently?”

Hudson looked pleased that he’d been asked this. “The great thing about superlatex, Benjy, is that it makes for a good, strong, snug rubber suit,” he said, gesturing to his own rubber-coated body. “The boots and gloves and the skullcap – oh, and the codpiece – go on after the main fitting. But they’re all made of this stuff as well.” He lifted his left foot so Ben could see the sole. “And it’s a well-designed suit, believe me. I could have gone into fashion if I hadn’t had so much fun ripping people off. I apply a cushion of air to the soles of the boots – only needs to be half an inch thick, if that – and the lightness and strength of the superlatex means I can carry as much weight as I need. It’s like a super-concentrated air pocket in your trainers. I can walk around in these things, and as long as my weight’s distributed on my feet, the air bubble supports my weight. Not a sound.” He lowered his foot and continued to watch Ben. “Next question,” he said, and Ben was just about to say something, when Hudson continued. “You’re living with your parents, what’s that about? You really want to be here?”

Ben was taken aback. Why was Hudson asking him about himself? It seemed pointless to lie about it, though. “I finished uni. I came home. I thought I’d have a good year, save some money to get somewhere else, but I’m kind of stuck here now. No jobs, nothing happening at all. I dunno how to get away again.”

“Whereabouts were you at Uni?” asked Hudson. He sounded interested.

“London,” sighed Ben.

Hudson studied the computer screen again. “You miss it?”

“Yeah.” Ben felt a lump in his throat again. “Yeah, I really do.”

“I thought I recognised a few of these places,” said Ben, staring at the screen. “Yeah, London would be more fun than round here, all right. I’d say you’re pretty wasted here, Benjy.”

He picked up the Rubbergun and, unexpectedly, aimed a shot at Ben’s elbows, and then his knees. Ben found himself pressing down on the mattress with the palms of his hands. He dug his toes in the corner of his duvet, now piled up near the foot of the bed. He felt good.

Hudson was watching him intently. “Better?” he asked.

“Yeah, thanks,” said Ben. It felt good to be able to move again. He stretched his arms, like he’d just woken up.

“I wasn’t sure if I was going to do that,” said Hudson slowly, “but I thought I would. Close-run thing, though. When I break into people’s houses, I don’t usually leave the householders in any state to tell anyone about it. That’s why I came here tonight, incidentally. I had my fun with you, yeah, but first and foremost this was a burglary, in case you wondering.”

The news didn’t surprise Ben as much as he’d expected. Well, it made sense, from what he’d seen so far. “Fair enough,” he said, at a loss for anything else to say.

“Well said, I appreciate that,” said Hudson, with a half-smile on his face. “So, you want to join me? Deal with the family, leave the family home, come away with me tonight and become a career criminal? It’s a great life, the financial rewards are excellent and obviously there’ll be a lot of rubber in it for you if you do. I’ll be honest, I think the rubber’s going to be the deal-breaker with you, Benjy.” He sat back in the chair and stretched, as Ben had a few minutes earlier, revealing inviting rubber pits.

Ben shook his head in disbelief. “What?”

Hudson reached over and helped him off to the bed, to his feet. “Like I said. I’ve spent the last hour demonstrating to you what the kind of guy I am. You’ve seen how mean I can be, how thoughtless and greedy. I do what I can to make money at the expense of others, I’ve no qualms about abusing a nice lad like yourself if it gets me off, whether they’ve asked for it or not, and I’m really up for corrupting you further, now you’ve shown an interest. But you know I’m smart, you know I’ve got access to the stuff your fantasies are made of. And I know you’re into me, however badly I’ve treated you so far.” He reached down and lifted Ben’s chin with his gloved hand. Ben was glowing inside. “But I’d like the chance to treat you well, Benjy. You’ve gone out and got an education and you’re still stuck at home, sick of your life. You want something to motivate you, something to reach for and something to feel passionate about. You want to enjoy yourself. You want to be moving forwards, not backwards. Right?”

“Right,” said Ben quietly, without a second’s hesitation.

“You can stay home with mum and dad forever. But you want more than that, and they want you to amount to more than that,” persisted Hudson. “Ok, so the only way you can leave here with me is at their expense, and maybe they’d rather you weren’t running round breaking the law, stealing and fucking and hurting people, but all kids have some disagreements with their parents about what they do with their lives. They’d be proud of the income you’ll be pulling in, anyway. And the quality of life. And I’ll get you in better shape than you’ve ever been, Benjy. Think about that.” Hudson casually dug his left hand into his right armpit as if to scratch it, and in doing so demonstrated the huge bulge of his left bicep under the skintight rubber. Ben watched with interest. He wanted that, yes. But he shook himself.

“I can’t let anything happen to my parents,” he said. “I can’t hurt them. I can tell them I’ve got some job abroad and disappear forever, send them letters now and then, but I can’t just remove them altogether. They’ve done too much for me.”

“Benjy, don’t think about it like that,” said Hudson. “They won’t suffer. They won’t be in pain. They won’t even be recognisable. I just give them a shot from the Rubbergun and they wind up as a couple of black balloons. All their internal organs, their nervous system, their skeletons, everything – it all just disappears. They’ll just be a layer of superlatex filled with air. Their brains won’t degenerate, they won’t even switch off, they’ll just disappear. There’ll be nothing left for them to hear or see or feel. They’ll have no sense of anything. Not a trace of humanity left.” He shot Ben a glance, as if to see how he was taking it. “That’s how it is with every house I visit like this. I don’t do this all the time, but it’s how I got started and it’s fun from time to time. But when I leave, every person in every house is a black rubber balloon, and they’ll never suffer again. As soon as I entered this place that was your parents’ eventual fate. That was going to be your fate, Benjy. But it’s just like switching people off without them ever knowing what’s happening. It’s quick and gentle. I don’t cause people harm, Benjy, not really.”

Ben paused. He liked the persuasiveness of the argument. But something still troubled him. “You raped me. You said you’ve done it before. You do that to some of the guys you’ve come across when you’ve broken in, and you say you don’t cause any harm? How the fuck does that work out, exactly? And what about the friends and families of the people who end up as balloons? You think it doesn’t affect them?”

“Ok, ok.” Hudson held up a hand to silence Ben. “Yeah, the rapes aren’t exactly harmless, but it’s not like there’s any long term damage there when the lads are going to end up as balloons within half an hour anyway. And you don’t want to knock it until you’ve tried it, Benjy. I’d put money on there being lads you’ve known that part of you would love to take total control over. Those lads you don’t like, but you really fancy. The fear in their eyes as you force yourself into them and there is not one fucking thing they can do about it. And you can go further than I went tonight, kid, a lot further. I can build you up to be as mean and aggressive as you want, and you just think about how good it would be to fuck a boy like that and see how much you’re doing to him.” Ben didn’t want to be getting turned on by this, but he was. “And you’ll have you rubber kit on, mate, of course you will. You get off on how I look, Benjy, but this is exactly what you could be if you come home with me tonight. And if you’re worrying about extended families and so on, well, fine, but nothing I do is going to affect them directly. Everyone suffers loss at some point in their lives. There’s no sign of any struggle from anyone when I go home, that’s some comfort to them, right?” Ben wasn’t sure it was, and the look he gave Hudson seemed to show his reservations. Hudson sighed again and ran his hand across his shaved head. “But when it comes down to it, sure, you’ll have to reassess your moral codes if you want to come along for the ride, yeah. I thought with a kid like you it would be less of a leap from your nasty fantasies to a nasty reality. And the reality beats the fantasy every time, believe me. Go with the flow, Benjy, or stay put. If you think you won’t regret it. And I’m sure you know whether you will or not.”

Ben stared at the floor. What he was being offered sounded horny as fuck – he wished it didn’t, but it did. He loved the technology, he loved the gadgets, he loved the idea of the lifestyle, but it was all wrong. Wasn’t it? His eyes moved across the floor and came to rest on Hudson’s boots, smooth and streamlined and cushioned with some incredible air pocket in the sole that let him move without a sound. His eyes moved slowly up the boots, up Hudson’s body, past that awesome codpiece crotch, the flat stomach, the powerful torso under the harness, until he found himself staring into the man’s eyes. Hudson cocked his head to one side, trying to read Ben’s expression. Ben took a deep breath.

“I want it,” he said. “I want to be like you. I want to be with you.” He swallowed. “I’ll do it.”

Hudson’s grin split his face and he reached across and clapped Ben hard on the shoulder, knocking him sideways. “You little fucking star! Nice work, Benjy, pleased to have you on board, kid. Seriously, you’re not going to regret it,” he said. “Well, not for long. Come on, let’s zap mum and dad.”

Hudson snatched up the Rubbergun and flicked a switch on the bottom of the barrel. “Ankles together, Benjy,” he said, and pointed it at Ben’s feet as he followed the command. The air between Ben and the Rubbergun rippled again as Hudson slowly moved it up the length of Ben’s body. As he did so, Ben watched with amazement as his naked skin was coated with the same kind of shiny black rubber as on Hudson. Ben let out a soft moan as he felt the warm rubber cling tightly to his skin and seal itself at his wrists and neck. It fitted him just like a rubber suit; a second skin of rubber, showing all the contours of his body while, for the most part, preserving his modesty. His rubberised dick hung loose, as he didn’t have a codpiece like Hudson, but it still felt awesome. His feet were coated like the rest of him, but on the soles was a half-inch-thick layer of the same airtight superlatex. When he stepped forward he was realised he couldn’t feel the carpet under his feet at all. It was like he was literally walking on air. He took another step and realised that he was making no noise. He looked up at Hudson, who grinned and nodded. “Just one of the secrets of my success,” he said. “I’ll get you properly kitted out back at the base, but right now we’ve got important work to do, Benjy boy.” He snatched up his skullcap and tugged it over the top of his head and his eyes with a gentle squelch. Ben looked forward to getting his own skullcap.

“From now on, we say nothing, ok?” muttered Hudson. “You lead the way, and when we get down there we zap them, no more questions. You got that?”

Ben nodded. He carefully opened the bedroom door and stepped out onto the landing. It felt weird to be walking downstairs and not to make a sound. As the reached the bottom he felt Hudson’s gloved hand gently touch him on the shoulder, and then run down his back and rest on his rubber-coated butt for a second, giving it just the slightest squeeze. Ben turned around and gave him a shy smile. He liked the feeling of a muscular, powerful man behind him. He felt protected. He wanted to get used to this.

His parents’ room was at the end of the hallway, opposite his father’s study. As usual, the door was slightly ajar. Ben hesitated outside, not really wanting to see his parents asleep in bed. It would be easier if he didn’t have to see their faces. He stepped into the room and beckoned for Hudson to follow. Hudson held the Rubbergun out in front of him, rotated the settings switch on the barrel and pointed it straight at Ben’s mum. Suddenly, Ben didn’t want to do this. He turned to Hudson to stop him, but before he could move he felt a rubber-gloved hand wrap itself around his mouth as he watched the air ripple towards his mother who, in less than a second, was suddenly replaced by a shiny, black, human-sized, sausage-shaped balloon.

Ben’s first reaction was to laugh out loud, but the hand over his mouth prevented that. The double duvet hardly seemed to have had to move at all to accommodate the new form underneath it. Ben’s dad shifted slightly on his side of the bed, but remained asleep. Ben stared at the object poking out from under the duvet and resting on the pillows next to his father’s head, and tried to summon some kind of emotion. He didn’t know what to think; it was just a balloon now. Hudson’s hand was still over his mouth, and he felt him jerk his head round so they were looking at each other. Hudson didn’t look as angry as Ben had expected. He just stared at him and released his hold. Ben didn’t make a sound. Hudson held out the Rubbergun, nodded at Ben’s dad, looked Ben in the eye and mouthed, “You.”

Silently, Ben took the Rubbergun and nodded in reply. His hands were trembling. He levelled the barrel at his sleeping father, moved his hand down the handle and found the trigger. However, just as he squeezed his right index finger on it, the cat shot through the doorway past them both, nudging Ben’s foot and taking him by surprise. He jumped, the Rubbergun slipped and his aim faltered, sending the air ripple towards the bedside cabinet beside his father. The cabinet changed into a shiny black latex ball, the bedside lamp slid off its rounded surface and smashed on the floor, and Ben’s dad jerked awake and sat bolt upright in the bed, staring at the two shiny black rubber figures in the doorway.

“What the hell-,” he began, turning to look at his wife, and seeing nothing but a thick black balloon in the bed. As shocked as he was, Ben wanted to laugh again, and this time there was nothing to stop him. As he let out a snigger, Hudson reached around him, pressing his crotch against Ben’s arse, grabbed the Rubbergun, pointed it directly at Ben’s dad and fired again. There was just enough time for Ben’s dad to realise that something bad was about to happen to him when he stopped being Ben’s dad altogether, and became a long black balloon, just like the one in the bed next to him. Hudson let out a long sigh, and pulled his arm away from Ben.

“That was fucking messy, and I don’t want it to happen like that again,” he snapped. “I’m in and out, quick and clean, that’s the way it usually goes. I’ll make allowances for this being your first time and those things being your family, but I never, ever want to see a repeat of this, understood?”

Ben had stopped laughing. It didn’t seem funny now. He felt bad for what he’d let happen to his parents, but he’d also disappointed Hudson, and that seemed a lot worse. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It was the cat…”

“Yeah, it fucking was. Deal with it,” snarled Hudson, pushing the Rubbergun into Ben’s chest. Ben positioned it in his hands and pointed it at the cat, now sitting on the windowsill behind the bed head, washing itself. He squeezed the trigger and watched the tabby creature balloon out and turn into a football-sized black latex sphere. HE’D done that. His cock stood to attention, unexpectedly, and he felt Hudson coil an arm around his waist and squeeze it again. “That’s better,” he whispered into Ben’s ear. “I knew you could do it, Benjy. Even if it’s just a cat.” He grinned. “Come on, time we were out of here.”



4.

Hudson stood in Ben’s bedroom doorway, watching him make the bed as tidily as he could. They’d already turned the Rubbergun onto Ben’s recently-unused barbell and transformed it into a sausage-shaped balloon just like the ones downstairs, and now they’d tucked it under the duvet to create the impression Ben had met the same fate as his parents. Ben had asked how anyone would know that these were people, and why even bother to mock up his own balloon, but Hudson had explained that twenty or thirty households across Western Europe had met this end now, and although the authorities had no idea of the perpetrator or the pattern he was following (mainly because he wasn’t following any pattern at all), they’d realised that the balloons at least corresponded to the people who were never found. Whatever they may have suspected, there was no evidence to suggest these were the people, but it was an assumption more than one imaginative secret-service agent had made. Hudson wasn’t concerned, however; he was unshakeable in his confidence that he was untraceable, brilliant and would remain completely undetected. Ben, who knew there’d be traces of semen and various other fluids and skin cells on the blankets, wondered how he could guarantee this, but Hudson had an answer for everything, albeit often a far-fetched one.

“Forensic evidence doesn’t count for anything if they can’t trace it to anyone,” he said, “and when I’ve been round, they can’t. The superlatex skin is disease-free, doesn’t leave any trace of itself behind, and just to throw them even further off the scent, I’ve got this.”

He tugged at one of the pockets in the harness across his chest and removed a short, thin metal stick. He twisted the bottom and a hole appeared in the opposite end, releasing a tiny cloud of some kind of concentrated gas into the room. It was only visible for a second before it dispersed and disappeared from view. Ben gave him a quizzical look.

“Neutraliser cloud,” Hudson explained shortly. “It just scatters around the house, settles on all the surfaces, spreads into every corner. Any traces of the human body – skin, hair, blood, urine, anything – it’ll soak through them and mix up the DNA codes within them. Anyone tries to identify anything we’ve left behind, they won’t stand a chance. Pretty useful, really,” he grinned. “Bet you’re glad you’re on my side now, aren’t you?”

Ben grinned back. Something major had happened tonight and he knew he should have felt guilt, sorrow, anger, violation, but none of those emotions were coming through. He just felt excitement at what was to come with this big, strong rubberman. “How do we get away, though?” he asked.

“Well, I’m glad you asked that, Benjy,” said Hudson. “If anything, this is even more unlikely and an even more essential piece of kit.” He winked at Ben and tugged another metal item from a pocket in the harness. At first glance, this one looked to Ben like the two sides of an oriental fan that slide open to release the fan and clip together to form the handle. They were about ten inches long. Then Hudson pulled them apart and Ben saw that they were connected not by a fan, but by the mouth of a superlatex sack that grew in size the further apart they were pulled. Hudson flicked a switch in each handle and they each extended at both ends, increasing the size of the mouth of the sack. Hudson passed the two rods to Ben and said: “Hold them apart. Make it as big a hole as you can.”

Ben spread his arms apart and watched with surprise as the sack grew bigger and bigger. Hudson reached across and lifted the computer monitor off Ben’s desk, dropping it into the hole. Instead of the bottom of the sack splitting or it suddenly feeling very heavy, however. Ben just watched as the heavy monitor disappeared into the darkness at the bottom of the sack. This seemed like one ridiculous invention too far. He looked up at Hudson and frowned. “Who do you think you are, Mary Poppins?” he said, shaking his head.

Hudson looked like he was really enjoying himself. “I know, I know, and you’d be even more appalled if I told you that was where I got the idea from,” he grinned. “So I won’t.” He moved around the room and scooped up a few other valuables before dumping them in the apparent depths of the sack; Ben’s TV, his CD player, the rest of the computer. “I know it’s hard to take all this in, but I did explain that I’m a scientific genius. It just takes a bit of imagination. And I’ve seen your profile, rubberboy. Imagination’s one thing you’re not short of.” He stood behind Ben and wrapped his powerful arms around Ben’s rubbered chest, pushing the codpiece into his arse again. Ben instinctively found himself pushing back against the hard muscles and the awesome bulge. “I think you belong to me now, don’t you Benjy?” murmured Hudson, and Ben nodded his agreement. “And I think all this stuff belongs to us,” continued Hudson, “and you’ll be able to tell me what else we can pick up from downstairs.”

The two rubbermen moved silently around the house with the sack, filling it with everything they could find, without having to worry about damage or weight or space. Ben decided not to question it any more. A couple of times they even lifted up pieces of furniture and lowered them into the sack, marvelling at the weightlessness of them as they disappeared into the vast, airy interior. After another hour or so, Hudson decided it was time to head off. The clock in the kitchen said it was just before 6am. The sun wasn’t due to rise for another forty or fifty minutes, but Ben was aware of the occasional car outside. Everything seemed more awake. He wondered how they were going to get away unseen.

He turned to Hudson who was standing in the kitchen window, looking out onto the back garden. He seemed to be trying to figure something out. After another minute, he snapped the two rods together to close the sack and, to Ben’s surprise, pushed the whole thing back into the pocket of the padded harness. He turned to face Ben.

“I need you to do a couple more things for me now, Benjy,” he said. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing you haven’t done before.” He paused. “Well, kind of. First of all, I need you to flick that light switch over there for me.”

Ben trotted over to the kitchen light switch and switched it. The room was filled with light. Ben’s first thought was that anyone who could see into their back garden would almost certainly be able to see these two rubberised figures standing in the kitchen window, but that didn’t seem to bother Hudson at all. He looked triumphant and happy. He was looking at something just under the window, and it took Ben a couple of seconds to realise what it was.

“Our shadows…?”

“Good boy, Benjy, very good.” Hudson smirked. “You’re picking it up now. This could turn out to be the hardest thing of all to explain, so again I think it’s easier if I don’t even try. Normally you’ll be able to do this alongside me, when I get you fitted out with your own kit, but because we’ve not done that yet it’s very important for me to keep tight hold of you right up until I say we can separate, otherwise you’ll probably find yourself sprawled on the ground with no idea where I am and no way of finding me. And neither of us want that, buddy.”

“But what are you actually going to do?” asked Ben.

Hudson took his hand and pulled him close. “Look, it’s pretty simple,” he began, “if you just go along with me. Like I said, don’t let go. Seriously. You see how those two shadows on the patio down there have just merged into one when you came and stood with me just now?” Ben nodded. “Well, as long as we’re both making one shadow, I can do this.” He reached down to the belt around his waist, and turned the dial in the centre 360 degrees anticlockwise. Ben felt all the weight in his body leave him.

This wasn’t just like walking on air any more, this was like being air. He could see all around him, he was outside on the patio; he could feel Hudson against him and yet he couldn’t feel anything; he just seemed to glide across the ground, alongside walls and skirt around the edge of the road. They moved through patches of sunlight, barely noticeable, and dipped in and out of shadows, completely hidden from view. Ben was amazed at the speed with which they moved, and the fluidity and ease of their motion. Occasionally he’d expect a gust of wind to create some resistance, even if just a tiny amount, but it was as though they were now obeying a completely new set of physical laws. Ben hardly had to think at all, he was happy just to let Hudson carry him along, wherever they were going. He still recognised the area they were in, local to his house, though he seemed to be seeing it all differently now, as if from a new angle or perspective.

After another few minutes Ben realised that they were heading away from the houses and down to the far end of the estate. There were new housing developments built close to the railway, and a track that led across the rails towards the nature reserve. Ben hadn’t been down here for years. He and Hudson passed over the railway in a second, past the fields, towards the trees and woodland that grew denser ahead of them. They crossed the second railway line and slipped between the thick, heavy bars of the tall steel fence with ease. They were off the right-of-way, moving deep into the heart of the nature reserve, away from the public areas into the most remote, unspoilt parts.

Ben was aware of being closer to the ground than usual. They seemed to spend less time moving around the trunks of trees and more time gliding over the knotty roots. The sun was starting to rise by now and Ben was aware of being able to see slightly further ahead, being able to reach further, to cover more ground more quickly. The ground was sloping downwards now, trees on all sides and branches hanging overhead, and through the trees ahead of them Ben saw a flash of something bright green. An almost unnaturally bright green, glowing eerily in the early sunlight. They were moving even faster now and it was only when they were right on top of it that he saw how smooth and vast an area it covered. Ben realised that he was looking down into a still pool of water covered with a thick layer of green algae. He felt a gentle pressure from Hudson, somewhere around him, and he was pushed down, away from the sunlight, deep under the water.



5.

Ben staggered into some kind of cushioned wall, and stumbled onto the floor. He was all there again, and he ached all over. It took a few seconds to focus properly on his surroundings. He was somewhere dark… somewhere dark, with cushioned walls and a cushioned floor, apparently… and Hudson was standing over him, looking down with an indifferent expression on his face. He was fiddling with the dial on the belt again, and then he unfastened the whole harness and lifted it over his torso, hanging it somewhere on the wall. Ben’s head throbbed. Hudson gave him a little nudge with his boot.

“Still there?” he asked. He reached down and offered Ben a hand. Ben staggered to his feet, grabbing onto Hudson for support and then found a space on the wall to lean against. Hudson produced a bottle of chilled water from somewhere. Ben took it from him gratefully and took a swig. His head started to feel better.

“Sorry about that,” said Hudson, “but it was a lot easier for you to see that for yourself and then ask me the necessary questions later. If I’d tried to go into details beforehand we’d never have got away from there before it was light. I suppose you’ve got some idea of what we just did, right?”

Ben looked at him in astonishment. He’d seen a lot of weird stuff already today, but it didn’t make it any easier to explain. Hudson seemed to understand, for he continued without waiting for a reply.

“Obviously, you know I can do things with atoms and molecular structure and all that, well, science stuff,” he said with a shrug and a half-smile, “but the real physics comes in here. I’m not going to stand here now and explain to you how I can turn a person into a shadow, because your head’s fucked and it wouldn’t make the slightest bit of sense. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense if you’d been studying physics for ten years and had unlimited research resources at your disposal, because the syllabus they’d teach you would have led you around the edges of the interesting stuff and limited the scope of your imagination. You wouldn’t have realised it – they wouldn’t have realised it – but, honestly, everything I developed I did with the most basic scientific principles and I guess I should stop talking now because if I was you listening to me saying that, I’d be a little worried now, Benjy.” He grinned, and Ben felt reassured again. He was marvelling at the way this guy could make him feel safe, even after all he’d done.

“So, we were shadows.” Ben tried saying it as if it was the most normal thing he could imagine. “Ok, fair enough, I can handle that. We’re not now, right? Where are we?” His head felt more together now, and he was looking round the room. As he’d noticed before, the walls were soft and padded with shiny black rubber, and the floor also felt soft beneath his feet, but then he remembered his soles were still air-cushioned. The room was about ten feet wide and forty feet long, from the looks of it. At first Ben had thought it was a long, low oblong shape, but now he looked more carefully he realised there was a curve in the ceiling and also, when he glanced down, in the floor. It was almost as if they were inside one of the black rubber sausages he’d seen Hudson ‘create’ earlier. There were cushioned seats, various metal crates and boxes along parts of the wall, several monitors and unidentified machinery at one end and what looked like some kind of bunk or mattress at the other. There were strips of light along the ceiling and warm air drifting in from somewhere. Ben felt comfortable and relaxed here. Hudson sat down opposite him and tugged off his skullcap with a snap.

“Shadow, not shadows,” he said eventually, “just to correct you. I only came out with one harness tonight; not really expecting to bring anyone back with me, see. We’ll get you kitted up, don’t worry, and you’ll be able to travel back without having to hang onto me next time. The main thing about the harness is that you’ve got to be wearing the superlatex for it to change you, that’s the thing. So long as your rubber was pressed against my rubber, we could be the same shadow. But that’s why it left you so groggy this time. It won’t be like that again, don’t worry.” He paused, as if trying to answer Ben’s questions point by point. “Right now, we’re in my balloon. My big balloon,” he grinned, “as you know I’ve got quite a few. Right now we’re headed back to my base, and you are going to fucking love it there, Benjy, don’t you worry about that. But the base is hidden a long, long way away, safe from all the people I’d rather avoid; lawmakers, lawbreakers, governments, secret services, armies, conspiracy theorists. It’ll be an hour or two before we get back, and then you’ll see for yourself just how great that place is. That’s where you’ll be living and transforming from now on, buddy, and I have big plans for you. I’m going to get you working out every day, get you fit like you’ve never been before, get you nice and big. And fuck you. Man, you are going to have the kind of sexual experiences you’ve only dreamed of so far. Better than a quick fuck on a cheap pine bed frame.” He clapped Ben on the shoulder and Ben wondered how the fuck this man made his introductory rape sound like a first date. Still, he did. Ben’s cock was still rigid.

“This is a balloon, then,” said Ben, stating the obvious.

“This is a balloon,” agreed Hudson. “It’s an air balloon. Like supervillains have. I guess that’s what we are, really. You ok with that, Benjy?”

Ben thought for a second. His old internet profile had been pro-supervillain, in theory. It was a nice idea. “Yeah, I can live with that,” he agreed.

“The supervillains have better sex, anyway,” said Hudson. “Much nastier sex, real pig sex, nastier imaginations.” He resumed his explanations. “So this is my balloon - my stealth balloon, of course - and we're in the chamber inside the balloon. Just picture it as a small tube inside a larger tube. We’re safer in the balloon, it’s about twice the size of this chamber, and the whole thing’s made of superlatex. Nothing you can’t do with that stuff, believe me. There’s a nice cushion of warm air on all sides of us. That’s what makes the balloon fly. But I’m going to lose you in the science again, I think. I can take you through all this back at the base.”

Ben thought back to just before they were inside the balloon. “I don’t know how we got inside, though,” he said. “We were shadows – sorry, a shadow – and then we went into that water – the pond or whatever, under the algae – and then we were here, and… well, how?”

Hudson smiled and stroked the back of his head. “It’s complicated, Benjy, I said it was. But I’ve got to stick this thing somewhere while I’m out. I find a place where I can leave it undisturbed – underwater is perfect, dirty water even better – and turn the whole thing into a shadow as it’s landing, me as well. Depending on how high I am and where the moon is when the balloon descends, my shadow can get cast anywhere within a mile or two of the thing, and tonight I just happened to end up in your back yard. Looked like a well-off household, so I thought it was as good a place as any to try. I stay as a shadow until I’m inside, then I go solid again and have a prowl around. And that’s when I met you.” He tousled Ben’s hair and let go of his head. “When it’s time to go again, I head for the place where I’d left the balloon. When my shadow hits the water I switch the dial again and merge with the shadow I left underwater. Like I said, this is why it’s important that all the shadows are cast by superlatex. Everything returns to its natural form and I’m back inside. Anything I’m carrying tucked inside the superlatex is safe as well, just like all the stuff in the balloon. Oxygen generator, thermostat, cargo, booty, night-vision, radar, everything. It all works, honestly.” He was tugging off his latex gloves. He opened one of the metal boxes next to him and lifted out what looked like a penknife. “Trust me, Benjy, I’m not a good guy, but I’ll look after you. Right now, I think it’s time we got out of this gear until we get back to base, ok?”

Ben watched as Hudson flicked the knife open and unfolded some kind of blade. It didn’t look particularly sharp. Hudson pulled off his boots, revealing his rubber-coated feet, and then lightly ran the blade up the back of his calf and his thigh. He tugged the rubber forward and it split at the back, revealing his leg. He did the same for the other leg, and then ripped off the codpiece again and stood up, showing his back to Ben.

“All I need you to do is just trace a line up the back, buddy,” he said. Ben took the knife and ran it from Hudson’s tailbone to the back of his neck. He stroked the big, powerful muscles, and Hudson let out an approving moan of pleasure and pushed his shoulders forward. The top half of the suit dropped off him, revealing his strong, muscular body for the first time. He turned to face Ben and, revealing neatly clippered chest and stomach hair and a huge cock that swung out, smacking the boy on his thigh. Ben stood to attention.

“Time to cut you free, I think,” said Hudson, “but first we’ve got to do something about your hair. You had it nice and short in those pictures I saw before. How about taking it shorter still? You’re a man of action now, Benjy. Get between my legs, soldier.”

Hudson sat back down into his seat and pushed Ben onto the floor, between his legs. Ben watched him in the mirror opposite. Hudson had reached into the metal box again and dug out electric clippers. He switched them on and proceeded to attack the hair at the back and sides of Ben’s head. Ben watched as the untidy fuzz disappeared completely, and all the hair was removed around his ears, down the back of his neck and right up to the very top of his skull. Hudson changed the grade and cropped the hair on the very top of Ben’s head to a millimetre in length. Ben admired himself in the mirror. As short as his hair had been before, it had never been so severe, and it looked awesome, especially with the rubber coating his body. Hudson leaned forward, forced Ben’s head round and pushed his tongue into his mouth. He held him there for four or five seconds, and then let him drop to the floor, hard as a rock.

“Thanks,” said Ben. “For the crop, but for all of this. Seriously. I dunno what I did, but thanks. This is incredible. You’re incredible. Thank you. But why me? Why take me on?”

“Don’t get faggy on me, soldier,” said Hudson. “You’ve got a good imagination, you’re a good lad and I’m happy to have you on board. You’ve seen what I can do, I’ve got ways of making money now that are going to keep us rich forever. I can fund any research or experiments I want. I don’t have to break into houses to afford to live, Benjy, but I do it because I get off on the invasion of privacy and there’s usually a couple of hundred quid to make from it. Which, I should add, I don't donate to charity. But this is just my fun, buddy. This is a hobby. And it’s always good to make friends through your hobbies.”

Ben tried to think of something else to say. He knew he’d got mixed up with a guy who, to all intents and purposes was bad, someone who he’d watched finish off his parents and who’d turned his whole life upside down, but who was the warmest, horniest, friendliest guy he’d ever met. And he would be proud to amount a tenth of what Hudson was.

Hudson seemed to be reading his thoughts. He was grinning. “You ask too many questions, anyway,” he smiled. “Come on, Jarhead, strap yourself in, it’s time we put on a bit of speed. We’re gonna get you back to base and kitted up properly. Welcome to your new career, Benjy boy.”

Ben closed his eyes, leaned back and rested the back of his shaved head against Hudson’s hard-on, and felt his boss tug a strap across his rubber-coated chest, holding him in place. He didn’t argue. He had never been more comfortable.


THE END.